Sunday, 8 March 2015

Be Careful What you want to take out of any Country

In an effort to combat black market smuggling, Turkey has enacted
laws that have broad definitions of what constitutes an artifact, and
the government regularly prosecutes anyone believed to be removing
antiquities from its borders.[...] For
those buying antiquities in Turkey, the U.S. State Department warns on
its website, "use only authorized dealers and obtain museum certificate
for each item they are authorized to sell. At departure, you may be
asked to present a receipt and the certificate. Failure to have them can
result in your arrest and jail time."

Yet some people think they are above the laws about such things, even when they are actually in Turkey. Caveat emptor.

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About Me

British archaeologist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. Since the early 1990s (or even longer) a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context and their effect on the archaeological record.

Abbreviations used in this blog

"coiney" - a term I use for private collector of dug up ancient coins, particularly a member of the Moneta-L forum or the ACCG

"heap-of-artefacts-on-a-table-collecting" the term rather speaks for itself, an accumulation of loose artefacts with no attempt to link each item with documented origins. Most often used to refer to metal detectorists (ice-cream tubs-full) and ancient coin collectors (Roman coins sold in aggregated bulk lots)